Developing Social Justice Ambassadors

What is the injustice we are solving?

At our university, we noticed that the administration has cut community organizing and prioritized research-based courses, due to budgeting and an emphasis on research. In our higher education context, students have little access to courses where they can focus on community projects that improve equity in their communities. This is problematic because, within an already inequitable society, students often do not have the resources to help them organize and reflect on their work in their communities.

At our university, UC Berkeley, we discovered a lack of courses that help students analyze and address social issues in their communities. To address this issue, I took the initiative to teach a community organizing course that enables passionate students to actualize their dreams for social change. With my course, I inform students that social justice education extends beyond the classroom. Students apply community organizing techniques that I taught to develop social entrepreneurial projects and address problems within their communities.

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Project Activity

Hi Ashley, this is Bobby from Peace First. This is a great project and I really like the focus on preparing young people with the tools to create the change they want to see in the world and so happy that Peace First is contributing to your curriculum. I'm assuming you have the link to our digital activity center, but if not, its also a great resource. http://www2.peacefirst.org/digitalactivitycenter/
For your solution - "To solve this injustice of an inequitable society where social issues persist in our communities we will address the lack of courses equipping students with practical community organizing skills by teaching a course each semester where students can learn these skills and create their own community organizing projects that address social injustices in their communities" one thing I would encourage you to do is to further explore the root cause of this problem. Why are the classes that help students to do grassroots organizing being cut over other classes? What is the university's perception of community organizing that makes it seem less essential than other courses? I think digging into those questions will help unearth insights that can help you not only continue to do your work as an educator and organizer for students today, but also help to solve the bigger investment issues that impact students (and communities) in the future. One of the core tenets of Peace First is crossing lines of difference and I think asking these questions can help provide deeper insights into the problem that can continue to help you solve this injustice on multiple levels.
This is great work and excited to see it come to life. We are here to help.

Hi Ashley! Thanks so much for sharing this project. Really, really excited by what you're doing -- it really speaks to the heart of the work we do! We're honored that you're using our resources.

A member of the team will give formal feedback on your insight soon, but I love your theory that making sure access to community organizing training is widespread will enable people to better challenge and resolve social issues.

I'm wondering if there is a way you could leverage the training you're already doing to advocate for more resources for these types of courses at UC Berkeley?